D.O.A.
is a film noir drama film directed by Rudolph Maté, considered
a classic of the stylistic genre. The frantically-paced plot
revolves around a doomed man's quest to find out who has poisoned
him – and why – before he dies. The film begins with a scene
called "perhaps one of cinema's most innovative opening
sequences" by a BBC reviewer. The scene is a long, behind-the-back
tracking sequence featuring Frank Bigelow (O'Brien) walking
through a hallway into a police station to report a murder:
his own. Disconcertingly, the police almost seem to have been
expecting him and already know who he is.